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Attn: Cindy Sheehan. Can you help this student defend his first amendment rights?

Attn: Cindy Sheehan. Can you help this student defend his first amendment rights?
by Rojo [Subscribe]
Sun Oct 2nd, 2005 at 09:29:39 PDT
I was over visiting the Web site Information Clearing House,which is a great source of information for those capable of individual evaluation of sources, when I came across this appeal to Cindy Sheehan:

Cindy Sheehan is scheduled to visit [Holyoke Community College]in November. We will be trying to contact her to notify her of the recent police brutality and to ask her to make a statement in support of students. If anyone reading this can help us get in touch with her, please let us know.
I thought to myself that DailyKOS might very well be a place to get in touch with Ms. Sheehan and that if she didn't know about this already, she certainly would want to. It also seemed that other DailyKOS users would also want to know about a student anti-war protestor being assaulted by a thug who wears the twin hats of campus police officer and adviser to the college Republicans.

A little more information below the fold (or in even more detail at the link above)

Rojo's diary :: ::
Mount Holyoke Community College (HCC) student Charles T. Paterson was attending an antiwar protest on campus during which police began assaulting protestors for carrying a sign critical of the police. During the course of this assault, one of the the cops, officer Scott Landry, placed Paterson in a headlock and maced him in the face. Officer Landry also serves as an advisor to the HCC College Republicans, who were also present at the protest and "were also present at the protest, chanting behind the police line to incite the police to attack students," according to the campus Anti War Coalition.

Were Landry and other officers involved in the assault reprimanded or even investigated? It doesn't seem so. But Charles Patterson, who had played a consistently moderating role at the protest according to witnesses at the scene, did receive notice from the HCC police department:

The notice read: "Because of your conduct on the property of Holyoke Community College, your presence is no longer desired at Holyoke Community College, its property or buildings. Your failure to abide by said trespass notice will result in your arrest and court prosecution for trespassing. This notice will remain in effect untill [sic] revoked in writing by the Holyoke Community College Police Department."
It should be noted that not only does this notice deprive Charles Paterson of his education without recourse to any form of due process in the form of the courts or the colleges own administrative processes, it also deprives him of his livelihood as he is also employed on campus.

Cindy, if you haven't contacted the campus Anti War Coalition already (info.hcc-awc@hotmail.com), I'm sure they would greatly appreciate hearing from you!

For all the rest of you who might wish to ask the college's administration about theses matters: HCC President Messner 1-413-552-2222. (I'm sure I don't have to remind you to be polite, please!)

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